OK, here's the straight dope from my perspective: First of all "archiving" is another word for BOOTLEGGING with a feeble attempt at making it legit by getting permission to 'archive', that is to RECORD the show with somebody's permission, most of the time NOT the artist's or more importantly, the artist's record company who usually have at least some rights to the songs and all the responsibility to protect those rights, both for themselves and the artist.....Every, and I mean EVERY SINGLE ARCHIVER that I have met in my 25 year carreer of being an audio engineer KEEPS A COPY FOR HIMSELF. ALWAYS, otherwise, what's the point of spending all that money on all that top grade gear, and we all know how you 'archivers' bost about the gear you have managed to aquire....Next, what is done with those recordings???: EVERY SINGLE 'ARCHIVER' I have ever met trades, sells, gives, whatever, copies to whomever he pleases in whatever way that it serves him. How do you think these people get their expensive gear? More importantly to the artist and record companies, once it leaves the venue in anybody's hands, any possibility of securing those rights is lost forever. I can remember one particular instance that to this day pisses me off. I was on tour with Mr. Bungle. They have a NO RECORD policy, period. I of course recorded every show for them as I was the touring engineer. I have all those copies. I have never given any of them away out of respect for the band, even though I left on bad terms, but whatever. When we played for the record pre-signing party, Hollywood, the in house light guy and video guy wanted to run the VCRs for the video. We said no, absolutly not. He ran them anyway thinking I would not see them turning right next to me. I walked over, pushed the eject buttons on every machine right after the set and then he came unglued. Screamed, etc. I gave them to our manager. The dude followed me downstairs into that backstage room screaming the whole way about him not getting paid for his services and all, (low budget gear, garage production at best that nobody in the biz would ever pay for when you have the best available to you,) Anyway, the guy made a stink, the lawyers were there, they gave him nothing and said that the tapes were to be destoyed. I followed the dude over to the speakers where there was a spare under the stage. He claimed that he was rubbing the tapes on them and that they were being eresed. I made him put all the tapes into the machines and view the static. They were brand new tapes and could not have possibly been the ones recorded. I spoke up, looked back over to the speaker location under the stage, but there was a guy pulling the tapes out from under the stage and running for the door. They got away with it. Those same tapes are now available online through a black market bootleg site and they suck in quality, but they are the only live bootlegs of that era and worth money and of course, being SOLD. I would love to catch that guy and......ANyway, all you 'archivers' are nothing more than bootleggers. Certain individuals in this group are exempt from that statement having been hired by the promoter, for the promoter, for the aratists, etc. As you all wel know, certain events have to occur between the accociated parties, lawyers etc. before any of that material can be released, and the promoter and crew are NOT going to risk legal action, defamation af character etc, in the community they operate in by releasing some bootlegs without permission that will not sell enough copies to cover the legal fees to fight the record companies for copyright infringment. That is the hard cold reality of this subject, so, in closing summary, to all you ARCHIVERS, that is to say BOOTLEGGERS out there, leave your expensive recording gear at home. You have no need of it at this festival, however, ROTR has a space dedicated for all of you as well as other fests.... You are free to roam about the country while it is still a 'free' country! hehehehe.....HAHAHA!!!!
JB, rock on with yer bad self! You know who I am....... :p

"i have a copy of snwmf '99 & it contains the worst moment i think in reggae music when michael rose came out with sly & robbie and they were all out of tune."

Wasn't there for that, but sure than can be worse moments in reggae than a generally good band starting out of tune. For instance, I think Shaggy was a worse series of moments than any michael rose show. Peace

james you only think that because you didnt witness it. michael rose and sly and robbie that year were abysmal. rose was ok but sly and robbie were totally tuneless and unrehearsed and seemed to be going on 10 year old memories of how black uhuru material was performed. but in my opinion they are usually a let down in person in general.

whatever you say "da dub guy". what youre talking about is way out of my sphere of experience. but thanks for your comments. i believe i do know who i am talking to, hope to see you this year!

"sly and robbie were totally tuneless and unrehearsed and seemed to be going on 10 year old memories of how black uhuru material was performed. but in my opinion they are usually a let down in person in general."

I would tend to agree with you there Jah Bill. I thought Warrior King's set at SNWMF (backed by detour posse) was much stronger than the one at BMD the following year where he was back by Sly & Robbie. In fact, most of the artists they backed that time didn't really work.

One BIG notable exception to your comment was the TONY REBEL, HALF PINT show at Independent last year (or was that 04?). S&R sounded great during that set, as we have discussed previously.

True, I wasn't there so can't speak accuratly on that. If I'm there this year I'll try to catch Sly and Robbie @ ROTR, although i'm not sure if I could stand to sit through a full set of Sinead Oconnor. Peace

I remember when LKJ played in 97 and while on stage his eyes caught the the red light of a video cam and got really vexed. He went on telling people that snapshots are ok. Filming and recording is 'total disrespec'....he was pissed

i saw LKJ at a poetry reading at CalState L.A.
he was very rude when i asked him a question about michael smith & i even bought his book from him. he personalized everybodys & when he signed mine, he didnt ask my name. im not gonna cry about it, but what bumboclat attitude.
i know he dealt with much racism in 70's london, but i think he still has a negative attitude towards white people.